Tales From The Remnants
by pondering thoughts
Summary: In a world of hunters and huntresses, man and Grimm, there stands the story of a low life thug with no semblance and no special weapon, yet his mishaps drag him into the most dangerous mission of his life: Break out Roman Torchwick. The story initially started out as an interactive fanfic but I just found out that you cannot do that. Sorry to those who voted in chapter 1.
1. Episode 1: Big Trouble In Little Atlas

**Tales from the Remnants**

 **Episode 1:** Big Trouble In Little Atlas

 _This fanfic adapts to the majority votes of the audience for choices the protagonist makes._

* * *

Different.

That's pretty much how I would have described the past couple weeks: Different. Now, it wasn't all bad. I mean, the adventure had it's good times but there were some times where I thought "I'd rather cut off my genitals with a rusty bread knife than be doing this right now"

As I'm looking back on the events that have transpired, my inner thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the big man himself, professor Ozpin. There was something about the way he walked, like he was swaying a bit just to throw people off. I wasn't entirely convinced he even needed that cane he carried around.

The interrogation room was all but secure, in fact it was basically just a classroom with a table and two chairs. Now, I know you may think that a table and chairs are the only components of an interrogation room but that's not the case. The room was just a repurposed classroom by the looks of it, you could faintly see the markings of where a chalkboard used to be before it was obviously taken down. What made this situation more unnerving was the fact that Ozpin's right hand (wo)man Glynda Goodwitch was not present. I had heard the stories, the stories of-

"Are you quite done with your inner monologue?"

"Hm? Oh, yesyesyes sorry. Ah... What is it you wanted to ask me, sir?"

Now that was the first if many questions to be asked between the two individuals today. The headmaster and the (recently pardoned) enemy of the kingdoms.

'Now, enemy of the kingdoms sounds impressive, but in reality-

"You're doing it again, aren't you?"

"doing what?"

"Please focus on the task at hand please."

"Well, I was waiting for you to ask what you wanted to ask me but then you did that whole

dramatic pause thing and I kinda got bored."

Ozpin sighed "Mister Maroon, could you please detail the events that have occurred over the past two weeks involving yourself, your criminal friends and my students?"

Maroon looked at Ozpin in confusion and asked "Where exactly would you like me to start? I mean, there was some stuff that happened before your kids showed up."

Ozpin's eyes were now fixated on the former criminal "From the beginning..."

"Very well"

* * *

I grew up in Atlas. Now, I know it's believed that the whole kingdom is very militaristic, and they'd be right. However, every beauty has its flaws, every rose has its thorns, and in this case every stronghold had an underworld. So yeah, that makes me the bad guy in this story because that's where I begin, the underworld.

Never was that much of an achiever, raised in an orphanage, learnt to look out for myself and my friends. It was actually not that difficult once you got the hang of it. Of course, I never had shown as much potential as those I called my brothers and sisters, the minute they began showing signs that they had a semblance was the minute that the government took them away. So where did that leave me? Alone again with very little skill to show other than my cunning.

I remember signing up for various jobs for various individuals. The work was almost never legal but it was always an honest job. I worked hard at what I was assigned to do. Of course, most of the hired help were much more physically improved than myself, so hired muscle wasn't exactly what people thought when they saw me. I was usually hired as a messenger, roper, technician, etc. I was just about to carry out a job for a local conman to rope a greedy Atlas government official into a fake property deal, but that was when he... Um...

* * *

"Mister Maroon?"

* * *

His head... Exploded. Shot off. Boom. Gone.

Now, I saw who did it. Who killed him, but I really wasn't sure what to do then. The guy who did it, he had silver hair and wore these boots with guns in them. I mean, I've heard of hunters and huntresses having unique and crazy weapons but guns in boots was just unexpected on my part. Suddenly, all hell broke loose.

In the firefight that ensued, I ran for the nearest ship I could find. And as luck would have it, a bulkhead was primed and ready to launch, it probably belonged to the government official now that I think about it. I had to make my way through what I could only guess turned into a turf war. The second one guy dies, the rest of those degenerates jump at the opportunity to spill blood.

And that's when I met... Her

A small woman. You could easily mistake her for a young teen but it was clear to me that this was an adult. I could always roughly guess the age of someone by their eyes. For example, you Mr Ozpin, have a face so young but eyes so old. Your hair may be grey but clearly it's just for show-

* * *

"Back to the story please, Mr Maroon"

* * *

Right...

This woman had pink and brown eyes. I didn't really know what to think of it ar the time but the more I look back, the more her clothing complimented her eyes and hair. Almost like she was trying to carry the style of Neapolitan ice cream. Odd, don't you think?

Anyway, she was trying to steal the bulkhead as well. I could see her trying to hotwire it but so far nothing was working for her until I made myself known.

"Um... Excuse me"

And just like that, I had a sword pointed at my throat. The woman's look of anger quickly turned into one of contemplation and just as quickly, a look of happiness. She pointed at me, then towards the pilot's controls, she then pointed to herself and the onboard weapons system.

"You… want me to drive?" I asked with a drop of sweat falling down my nose. To which she simply smiled and nodded.

I nervously laughed and said "Well, let's see. A pretty little lady wants me to drive her away from a turf war while she's pointing a sword at me? Hehe how can I refuse?" And with that, her smile widened and she jumped on the gun controls.

The fight that ensued was nothing special, I couldn't really maneuver such a large vessel through the suburbs without causing damage. The lady in pink however, was mowing down anybody shooting up at us, honestly it seemed too easy. That's when that silver haired guy was following us in an Atlas military gunship, I don't know where he could have acquired it, yet he was hot in pursuit. The small woman managed to shoot down the gunship but that guy just wouldn't give up. He jumped out last minute and used those gun bot things to kick himself onto the Bulkhead. She and him got into a scramble behind me while I was trying to drive and before I knew it, he had her defeated and was carrying her to the cargo bay door. I felt like I had to help her, we both helped each other to get away from the mess that assassin started, but if I did, I wouldn't be able to control the ship and we'd have hit a residential area.

"So what did you do?" Ozpin asked, eyes slowly glaring.

Maroon froze "I… I…"

* * *

 **Save Neo**

Or

 **Save the residents**

End


	2. An unfortunate change of style

**As it turns out, I did not initially read the rules properly and have just learnt that interactive stories are not allowed. So... yeah. I'm afraid it's just gonna be my own decisions throughout Tales From The Remnants which I will be continuing soon. Stay posted people**


	3. Episode 2: Making Plans

(Intro song: The Silent Comedy - Exploitation watch?v=KIvGAveTP-w)

I stayed at the helm. I know it's cruel but it was either her or the dozens if not hundreds of residents in that part of town. I had to take priority and save them before the ship crashed. I pulled up as hard as I could to avoid the buildings and I succeeded, only to look back at the small woman and the silver haired assassin fall about in the cargo hold, the woman quickly recovered from her state earlier and was back on her feet running back to me.

That's when the assassin fired a shot at us both. I dived for the girl and the shot missed us but hit the flight controls, we were stuck heading up. The force alone was enough to drop the assassin out the back and I was almost falling with him had the woman not grabbed my hand. Unfortunately she list strength in her other arm and we were both falling.

That should have been it, that should have been the end but somehow it wasn't. There was a tight feeling around my chest as I looked down and see a pair of legs crossed over me, I then looked up as saw the girl holding on for dear life to an umbrella with both hands. The umbrella itself had propellers on it believe it or not, we were slowly descending.

"You know, not that I'm... Ungrateful for you saving me, but uh... Do you mind telling me what that was about?" I said, air escaping from my lungs under the tight hold of the small woman's legs which suddenly increased.

"Garhk- okay, okayokayokayokay. I'll shut up. Oum, you're so tempermen-"

* * *

And that's when she dropped me.

* * *

"NAAHAAAOOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

Then saved me.

* * *

"What in Oum's name was that?! You crazy-"

* * *

Then dropped me again.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

* * *

Finally, she decided to stop toying with my life.

* * *

"OKAY! okay. I'm sorry. Just please, please don't drop me agai- wow, we are really close to the ground now. What is that, like 15 feet?"

You know it was probably a mistake to point such a thing out to the woman who had already dropped me twice.

Her tempered look quickly changed to a sinister smile as her legs loosened. Dropping me one last time. Luckily for me, I had been dropped in a hedge. Unluckily for me, the hedge was full of thorns.

"...ow...my body...why does- everything in my body-?"

The small woman lands with the grace of a butterfly 2 feet in front of me, turns around and lends me her hand with a look of annoyance.

"uh... Thanks" I replied with a cautious smile. "So uh... What's the plan now?"

 _"..."_

"What? You think I'd just up and abandon my new accomplice after she was nearly killed?"

 _"..."_

"Yes. Okay, perhaps I didn't help you back on the ship. But that was because we would have leveled a small town and would have probably all died anyway."

The girl looked at me, contemplating what I had just said. She rolled her eyes and gave a sincere smile.

"Okay. Glad to see we're all good here. Speaking of which... What do we do now?"

 _"..."_

"I just said I'm not gonna leave you. Besides, I did a pretty crappy job of helping you back there, let me redeem myself by putting all my effort to helping you now"

Another sincere smile had developed on her face, bringing out the colour in her eyes. Such an interesting pair she had.

* * *

"Mr Maroon! Might I remind you this is a serious interrogation? You're inappropriate description of irrelevant features of your companion is not-"

"Her eyes! I was talking about her pair of eyes you idiot."

"Ah, I see..." The headmaster stood corrected. "Continue."

* * *

After we settled our differences, she pulled out a small holo device. When she activated it, a projection appeared of the criminal leader Roman Torchwick. His image moved to the upper left corner of the projection as a new projection of the Atlas prison cruiser appeared.

"So... Its a jailbreak?" The small woman nodded. "Okay, so what do we need? Uniforms? Equipment? Weapons?"

A short list appeared as another projection indicating what we needed. It specified that uniforms could be acquired upon reaching the cruiser. Apparently we already had the necessary weapons as that checkbox was ticked. The only thing we really needed was a ship to get there, that was where the problems only began to emerge.

"Okay... We've already got most of what we need. If we go back to the underworld, we could purchase a ship from- nonononono. We can't leave any trace of a ship being purchased, even by cash. We'll have to steal one- what's your name by the way?"

 _"...?"_

"It's just that I never really asked before. Never really seemed like a good time, but now it would be just rude if I referred to you as lady or-"

She held out her arm as a signal for me to stop talking as she typed into the holo device "Neo"

"Neo... Nice name. I'm Jared." To which, Neo smiled. "Anyway, yeah. Stealing a ship is the first thing on the list."

 _"..."_

"Yes, I know we HAD a ship, Neo... But that's probably still flying upwards as we speak."

A loud crashing noises is heard in the distance.

 _"..."_

"Or... Not... Hehe, Right. New ship it is. Any ideas where to steal one from?" Neo responded by uploading an image to the holo device. One which left me a little uneasy.

"Oh... Um... Yeah, how about we don't steal from them? Because you know, the White Fang aren't exactly the most forgiving if someone were to steal from them. I mean, nobody would be particularly happy about being stolen from, but especially them. Lets just see if there's one in that town we nearly demolished."

To this, Neo nodded and we started walking. Of course, I there are sometime where I absolutely hate silence so I kept trying to start a conversation.

"So... Why are we breaking out Roman then? What, is he your boyfriend or...?"

Neo simply stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Okay, okay. Not a boyfriend. Just a friend? Close friend, I imagine. I mean, I can't imagine any if my friends willing to break me out of prison."

 _"...?"_

"Oh don't look at me like that, of course I have friends"

 _"..."_

"Wow. Way to make a man feel good about himself. Fine. I don't have any friends. All of them were essentially conscripted into the Atlas academy once their semblance began to show. I don't have one, that's why I was... Left behind."

Neo stopped to look at me. Almost looking sympathetic for a moment before she walked up to me and squeezed my hand, only for a couple seconds and smiled.

"Oh, um... Thank you." The moment lingered long enough to make it awkward. "So, uh... What's my role in your master plan to break out your buddy?"

Neo opened the holo device again to reveal a checklist of jobs. The roles of infiltrator and pilot were already filled. All that was remaining was a decoy.

"I'm the pilot? Okay then, we could always use hired muscle for the decoy." Neo shook her head and brought up another image.

"Grimm? Okay, this is gonna be a tad more dangerous than I'd like. But I'll do it to help a friend out."

Neo looked surprised as I called her that. "friend" I'm sure she took it personally and I wouldn't blame her, I meant it.

"Anyway, shall we move on my dear?" I asked with a grin across my face. Neo returned the gesture and held out her arm, waiting for me to lock mine with hers.

Then we continued on our walk.

"So let me get this straight, Mr Maroon... You, by chance, saw an assassination and ran towards a ship. Met up with the accomplice of one of the worlds most dangerous criminals, and agreed then and there to break out aforementioned dangerous criminal?"

"That pretty much sums it up, yeah."

Ozpin took a sip from his seemingly never ending cup of coffee. "So... Where do my students fit into this?"

"Hehe... Well..."

* * *

 **Next time on Tales From The Remnants**

"Hunters!"

"Ren! Nora! Flower power!"

"This ship is a mess..."

"Neo!"

"Thought you were done with me, punk?"

"Jaune!"

"I need a weapon."

* * *

 **End**


	4. Episode 3: You Meddling Kids

**Episode 3: If It Weren't For You Meddling Kids**

The town wasn't a far trip at all now that I think about it. It was just a tad dull, but I couldn't complain. Me and Neo were walking hand in hand and got fairly close to a docking station but I got stopped just before we got there. Can you believe what Neo wanted?

She wanted icecream.

"You know, those ships aren't gonna wait around forever, right?"

She said nothing (as usual) and just kept eating. The only time she looked up to meet my eyes was when she had finished, but even then, she wouldn't let us continue the mission.

She pointed to me and moved her index finger up and down a couple times before making a hands down motion, she then pointed to a clothes store and then made a thumbs up.

"Really? You seriously think we have time for that?" To which, Neo nodded. "Well I suppose I could go with a new attire... The trench coat and gloves not do it for ya?"

She shook her head.

"Fine, how about something formal? Semi formal?"

 _"..."_

"What? I think I could pull off the businessman look" I said with a smug grin.

 _"..."_

"Yeah... Money might be an issue for that then. What do you suggest?"

 _"..."_

"Are you actually a mute or are you just trying to find out what makes me tick? Hmm? You know what, let's go with the old 'Missing Necklace' act, you know that one?"

Neo shook her head.

"Okay. Looks like I'll have to walk you through it. Think you can steal a necklace from that cheap market stall? Okay good. I need you to go into the clothes store and go into the changing rooms but don't buy anything, then walk out. About five minutes later, you go back in and explain to the cashier that you've lost your necklace and that you'll give a 500 Lien reward. Use that holo thing if you have to."

Neo is sat down taking notes.

"Once you leave, you give me your necklace and I'll keep it in my pocket while I go into the store, try on the clothes I want and "find" the necklace. The clerk will obviously want the necklace for the reward and I'll call him on it. Then I'll give him a scroll number and say its mine for when you, the lady who's lost her necklace, can get it."

Neo is sat down on a bench, hinging on every word I say.

"Greed will consume him and he'll try haggle for the necklace. Probably take some cash from the till as a wager. At most, we can expect half of the suggested reward. At the end of it, we could both end up with 250 Lien which would be a win-win. However, I'm not gonna want the money, I'll point out that it would be suspicious if a customer would be at the till so long without a purchase being made, so I'll suggest I take the clothes as payment."

Neo's eyes are glistening with anticipation.

"I walk out with new clothes, that idiot is left with a cheap necklace, and we both get away Scott free."

* * *

"I must say, Mr Maroon. That seems like quite a good plan if I do say so myself."

"Hehe... Yeah. If only it went according to plan."

Ozpin's face turned to one of confusion. "Why? What happened?"

"Well, that is when your precious students turned up!"

* * *

Okay. So Neo did her part of the plan brilliantly, I went in and "found" the necklace, was halfway through the plan then-

"Ren! Nora! Flower power!"

The glass window smashed and the clerk ran into the safety room. The cause of it happened to be a grenade. As soon as I saw it, I tactically made an exit.

"Whoooaaaahhhoa!"

Next thing I know, Neo is fending off against the Mistral champion and some blonde knight. Which left me at the hands of...

"Oh! Renny! Can I break his legs?" The ginger girl jumped with excitement. The foreign boy in green just nodded and she fired more grenades at me.

"What? Nononononono- ARRGGHHAA!"

So I'm there running for my life when I hear swords colliding, I turn and see Neo taking a beating.

"Neo!" I changed direction and ran towards her, the bombardment of grenades seemingly never ending. The boy in green managed to get ahead of me before I could get to her.

"Surrender now and I'll call off the girl." He said with a sly smile. I turned and saw that she-devil roar a maniacal laugh, only to be moved out of the way.

* * *

"By what?"

"Not what. Whom?"

"Very well then. Whom?"

* * *

The silver haired assassin and some girl with green hair. He kicked the ginger girl away while the girl engaged the boy in green. Which left me to help Neo, luckily the eastern boy dropped one of his guns so I made a grab for it and started firing at Neo's assailants.

"Jaune!" The Spartan took the hit for the blonde, I hit her in the shoulder.

"Phyrra!"

The blonde kid was NOT happy about it, let me tell you. You know what he did? Do you know what he did to me?

* * *

"I can only assume he cho-"

"Chopped off my arm, everybody!"

Ozpin sighs. "Mr Maroon, Jaune Arc was hardly in the wrong in that situation. What you did and what you conspired to do were both illegal actions. So throwing a fit about past issues now won't do either of us any good. Please continue."

"Fine."

* * *

So yeah. My entire left arm. Gone. Bye bye. Blood everywhere. Completely ruined my new outfit as well. Dark red frickin stains aqua blue, I really liked that shirt. Anyway, I'm there riving in pain and the blonde kid, sorry, Jaune says.

"I am SOOOO sorry! I was just trying to disarm you."

"That's not a literal thing, you moron!"

"You attacked Phyrra!"

"You attacked first!"

"You're criminals!"

"Well you!- are getting real wobbly, man. I think I'm- I think I'm gonna... Lie down for a..."

And I'm down.

When I wake up, I'm not in the town anymore, I'm on an operating table. And that's where I found out I had...

* * *

"Bam!" Maroon slams his pure white cybernetic arm on the table.

Once again, Ozpin sighs. "Your robotic ar-"

"My robotic arm, baby! I can punch through walls, hack into computers, project movies. This thing is great. Thank you~ Ironwood."

The headmaster chocked on his coffee. *Cough* "Ironwood?!"

"Yes. Now if you let me tell the story at my own pace, I'll share the details."

The silence said it all...

"So... Do you want me to continue the story or are you gonna say somethi-"

"Continue."

Or so you would have thought.

* * *

So. I wake up on an operating table and look at my new mechanical limb, only to be startled by the general himself.

"Jared Maroon. You have made yourself number 7 on my most wanted list over the past 2 hours. Stealing an executive ship, crashing said ship, attempted fraud, conspiracy to a jailbreak, assault, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. To be honest, I couldn't care less about these crimes. But the fact that they have been committed within a 2-3 hour period along with your new founded affiliation with Roman Torchwick's second in command have made your capture a priority."

"Capture? I was hardly taken from what I was doing. Between a three-way fight and my arm getting chopped off, I don't recall the Atlas military surrounding me."

"That would be because we only found you. The Beacon student team were there to investigate the whereabouts of your associate under the alias Neo, the two other assailants ran to pursue said associate, leaving you to bleed out."

"Neo..."

A grin formed on the generals face. "Yes Mr Maroon, I'm afraid she has abandoned you. But you do have the chance to make things right. Do as I ask, and you will be pardoned for your crimes."

"And if I refuse?"

"Well, consider that new arm of yours gone and life in prison. Now I'm assuming you want to know why you have that cybernetic limb... It's because I want you to continue with your plan to break out Mr Torchwick. That arm is equipped with top if the range decryption software, made of tungsten, has a built in comm device, and to top it all off, fitted with a nuclear reactor which is set to detonate should you not agree to my proposal."

I was essentially being blackmailed to continue breaking into a high security prison ship. The only question I had was...

"Why break him out? What good will that do you? It'll undermine the trust you have from the people, the other kingdoms, and the military itself."

"Which is why the breakout won't be made public. As for my reasoning, Torchwick has information which he is simply not giving us. You break him out, he trusts you, he lets you in on his plan, we catch him before he has the chance to act upon it. Do we have a deal?"

I didn't have a choice. I had to say yes otherwise I'd be in prison and Neo would still be out there alone.

"Yes. But you find and take me to Neo. The whole plan is hers anyway."

"Very well."

* * *

 **End of chapter 3**


	5. Episode 4: Out Of The Frying Pan

**Episode 4: Out Of The Frying Pan**

The general brought up a hologram of a warehouse. "We believe that your associate is being held by the white fang in this location. I can give you an older model gunship to retrieve her. Remember, you cannot let her catch on that you're working for me."

That last bit left me unsettled. She saved my life and now I have to keep dangerous secrets from her? I didn't like it. "Fine. But once this is over, we're done. You better keep to that."

Ironwood gave a reassuring smile and said "Don't worry about me, Mr Marron. Worry about what will happen to you if you don't keep up your end of the deal." And with that, I was escorted to my new ship.

The general walked alongside and gave me the keys. "Quite a beauty, isn't she? Any ship needs a name, I'll grant you the honor of that."

The ship was something to behold. Its design was different to say the least, almost like a large brick with 45 degree angled wings. The colour, oddly enough, was a black with a metallic trim.

"How about... Silver lining?"

"I don't see it being a necessarily bad name. Go ahead, the on board mech shall show you the controls. Good day Mr Maroon, and good luck." The general finished with a salute. I decided to give him a lazy two finger salute as I turned to face my new ship and its-

"Hi."

Right before me, a white and orange mech standing 10 feet tall, wide shoulders, blocky structure and one singular turquoise lighted eye.

"General Ironwood has already assigned primary coordinates. After you rescue your accomplice, where is your intended destination?"

It was nice. Being the one calling the shots on this mission, don't know if you can call it that, really. Its all one big rouse, one that'll put me on a hit list for every criminal on Remnant looking for alot of cash. Nevertheless, I was calling the shots and at the time, it felt good. "We'll go to the emerald forest. Better place than any to catch a Grimm for the decoy. Think a borbatusk should do the trick?"

"The Grimm know as Borbatusk: Various in size, but suitable sizes can be found to hold on the rear outer cage. Primary use of attack, rolling at high speeds using its sharp tusks to impale its victims. This would be an ideal Grimm for distraction."

"Awesome. Hey, what do I call you?"

"This unit's serial code is PB-729-X2"

"PB... Pilotbot!"

"This assigned alias... Acceptable"

"Alright Pilotbot, set course for Neo..."

The warehouse was fairly standard from what I could tell. One guard on duty occasionally switching with another guard, I'd assume after every hour or so. Luckily, I saw another way into the building, a the windows on the roof. I had the element of surprise.

"Okay PB, you're gonna fly over the warehouse fast enough not to be noticed, but slow enough for me to jump out onto the roof. I use the element of surprise, rescue Neo, then call you for extraction. Got it?"

"No problamo"

"Wha-"

"Warehouse in sight. Prepare to jump in 4..."

This was it.

"3..."

A properly formed plan.

"2..."

I was ready.

"Time to drop."

And so I did. The wind against my body was almost overpowering. It wasn't a large distance so in theory I should crash through the window then tuck and roll. But...

*Smack!*

I narrowly missed the window and hit the playing on the roof.

*thud*

Cinder Fall of all people was in the warehouse, as well as her two goons Emerald and Mercury, they had Neo locked up in a cage. That is of course until I turned up. "Mercury, go see what that is. If this is a rescue you're hoping for, Neo, they're not exactly subtle."

You could guess how I landed on that roof. With my entire body... Again. *cough* "Why?..."

"Hey! What do you think you're doing here? Come to rescue your little friend? Well tough, I'm gonna- hm? Yeah, it's him. Wha? There's nothing to be curious about. He's a- yes boss. Change of plans Jared, the boss wants to see you."

That was probably the luckiest break I ever had. Although you know what they say. Out of the frying pan, into the shit.

The interior of the warehouse was just as bland as the outside. All but a couple lights were out, under those lights was Cinder Fall. The Queenpin.

"So. Jared... As it turns out, you and Neo have hindered my initial plan so we have to go with the backup plan with almost unpredictable circumstances other than chaos. And here's the good news, Jared... You, get to be apart of it. If you don't like it, you can blame Neo here right before I kill you. You see, she wanted to break her precious Roman out of jail before my plan could continue. And you helping her made things all the more difficult, now Beacon know about Mercury and Emerald. It's only a matter of time before they link them to me as well. So now we're here."

I couldn't help but laugh nervously, trying to find the right words to say. "Well hehe... I-I-I wouldn't um... Really k-know what you'd need me for hehe..."

"It's simple, you're still going to break Roman out of prison and you're still going to be the pilot. The only difference here is that Mercury will be going with you as the distraction while Emerald and I will be carrying out the next phase... Mercury, untie our little infiltrator here."

"You got it boss." And with that, he kicked the lock off the cage and untied Neo, who surprisingly enough, decided to hug me.

 _"...?"_

"Oh? My arm? Hehe... Yeah, turns out an old friend of mine owed me a favour. Apparently used to work on Atlas prototypes."

 _"..."_

With that, Mercury decided to butt in. "While I do like a touching reunion, Jared you still need to find us a ship."

I felt like for the first time, I had the upper hand, with a smirk I said "Hey PB? Bring the ship down." And with that, Pilotbot landed right behind me. Mercury and Neo were flabbergasted.

"How..."

"What can I say? I've been busy. Now let's go rescue a crime lord."

The trip to the prison ship was a short one, the Sliver Lining was fitted with enough dust to make quick jumps around the kingdoms. Which brought us back to Atlas... The prison ship known only as Purgatory was always moving, never docking for more than a few minutes at a time to offload the less dangerous criminals while keeping high priority ones onboard.

We needed a change of plan when the ship was in sight. The Silver Lining had the speed to drop Neo and Mercury without issue but it didn't have the firepower needed to stop the automated defenses near the docking bay. I had to go with them. If we could find an escape shuttle onboard the cruiser, we could rendezvous with PB. I was just about done breaking it to the team.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is gonna be our new plan of attack."

 _"...?"_

"No. This is not gonna be like the last plan. No way a hunter team could mess with us this time."

Mercury decided to butt in. "I just hope you know what you're doing. If Cinder thinks you're pulling a fast one on her, she'll have me hunt you down. Believe it or not, I have a little respect for cyborgs."

"Well, that's refreshing...hehe... Alright let's do this. PB, you ready?"

"Affirmative. Prepare to drop in 3, 2, 1. Drop!"

I landed flat on my body again...

* * *

Ozpin looked puzzled at the young enforcer "Mr Maroon, you're not entirely self complimentary in these details of events. Might I ask why?"

"You might"

...

"Oh, that- that was you actually asking. Right... Well, I just like to tell the story as it is. There would be no point lying about what happened. I'm only just considered a good guy in this, don't want to cross that borderline back into being the bad guy."

Ozpin pulled out his scroll and brought up the medical files on team JNPR "I doubt Lie Ren would consider you a good guy considering the rest of his team are in physical therapy because of you."

"Hey, I wasn't the one forced them into their situation... Granted, I did nothing to stop it either, but it wasn't like I had alot of choice in the matter. If I acted out of character just once, Mercury would have caught on then Ironwood could've detonated my arm."

"Very well. What happened on the Purgatory?"

* * *

Well we managed to get past the patrols easily enough, turns out being small or slender really helps being light on your feet. Plus the fact Mercury was diverting most of them to the other side of the ship helped a big deal. Neo managed to incapacitate the two guards outside but that was the easy part, the hard part was hacking into the console, which is where I took my part.

"Not to worry my ice cream addicted friend, I've got this."

I placed my cyber arm up to the console and plugged my palm into the import device. Ironwood obviously placed neural implants for the arm to respond, but I didn't realise my mind would integrate with the ships computer.

The cyber realm was beautiful, I don't know quite how else to describe it. Nearly every piece if information on the ship was within my sight, including Roman's cell door code. "Aaaaand done. Haha!"

When the door slowly opened, the crime lord himself gave a smirk smile "Neo, so good to see you. Who's the skinny robot?"

* * *

 **End**


End file.
